An optical disc recording apparatus has proposed so far, in which an information signal is recorded on a write once type disc, i.e. so-called WO (write once) type disc according to the compact disc (CD) standard so that a musical information or the like is recorded so as to have a compatibility with the CD upon reproduction.
In actual practice, according to the CD standard, the optical disc is 120 mm in diameter, and a recording area encircled by a circle having a diameter of 50 mm and a circle having a diameter of 116 mm on the optical disc is defined as a program recording area in which a musical information or the like is recorded.
In addition, an area of 2 mm wide in the inner peripheral side of the program recording area (i.e. area encircled by a circle having a diameter of 46 mm and a circle having a diameter of 50 mm) and an area of 1 mm wide in the outer peripheral side of the program recording area (i.e. area encircled by a circle having a diameter of 116 mm and a circle having a diameter of 118 mm) on the disc are defined as a lead-in area and a lead-out area, respectively.
Music number, start time, end time and so on for a musical information recorded in the program recording area are recorded particularly in the lead-in area as a TOC (table of contents) information and used as data to perform various operations in the reproduction such as search reproduction, program reproduction and the like and to control the operation of the apparatus side.
Accordingly, in the above-described optical disc recording apparatus, when a desirable musical information is recorded in the program recording area of the WO type optical disc, music number, start time and end time of the musical information are sequentially stored in an internal memory. Then, at the completion of the recording, the contents of the internal memory are recorded in the lead-in area of the optical disc as the TOC information, thereby forming the WO type optical disc having a compatibility with the CD standards upon reproduction.
In the thus arranged optical disc recording apparatus, if the recording of information signal on the program recording area of the WO type optical disc is interrupted temporarily, the TOC information is recorded in the lead-in area as described above. There is then the substantial disadvantage that a new information signal cannot be recorded again in a vacant area of the program recording area after the interruption without difficulty.
As a result, the user has to temporarily record a recording musical information or the like in an audio tape or the like in the complete state by a time period corresponding to the recordable area of the program recording area prior to the recording, which is still inconvenient for the user upon use.